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The Austro-Hungarian Navy built a series of U-Boats between 1907 and 1918 to defend its coastline and project naval power into the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas in wartime. With the establishment of the Austrian Naval League in September 1904 and the appointment of Vice-Admiral Rudolf Montecuccoli to the post of Chief of the Naval Section of the War Ministry in October that same year, the k.u.k. Kriegsmarine began a program of naval expansion befitting a Great Power. Montecuccoli immediately pursued the efforts championed by his predecessor, Admiral Hermann von Spaun, and pushed to greatly expand and modernize the Austro-Hungarian Navy. By the Spring of 1905, Montecuccoli envisioned a modern Austrian fleet of 12 battleships, four armoured cruisers, eight scout cruisers, 18 destroyers, 36 high seas torpedo craft, and six submarines.